Inner Speech

Question 1

What is inner speech?

Answer 1

Language-based self-talk; silently talking to yourself in your mind.

Question 2

What are the two types of inner speech?

Answer 2

Elicited (task-driven) and spontaneous (naturally occurring).

Question 3

What is Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES)?

Answer 3

Participants note thoughts when signalled to capture natural mental activity.

Question 4

What did Hurlburt et al. (2013) find?

Answer 4

Inner speech varies across individuals and isn’t constant.

Question 5

What did McGuire et al. (1996) show?

Answer 5

Broca’s area and auditory cortex activate during inner speech.

Question 6

What did Alderson-Day et al. (2015) show?

Answer 6

Spontaneous inner speech activates auditory areas more than elicited.

Question 7

Which brain regions are involved?

Answer 7

Broca’s area, auditory cortex, SMA, and motor cortex.

Question 8

What is the link to hallucinations?

Answer 8

Some theories propose misattributed inner speech as the source of hallucinated voices.